It has weakened to a category two hurricane maximum sustained winds 110 Miles Per Hour. The good news is with this off shore track it means the strongest part of the storm, the Northeast Quadrant remains over the ocean but its very close, its only 40 miles east of jacksonville so this track also keeps hammering the coast and we do have some about he what wases we can zoom in give you some live data. This shows right near jacksonville winds gusting up to 52 Miles Per Hour and a big concern with georgia and South Carolina will be the storm surge. As far as the peak wind gusts, the peak wind gusts reported in Cape Canaveral 107 Miles Per Hour but got to kind of qualify that. That was taken from a tower 50 feet above the surface. Surface winds generally right along florida about 65 to 75 Miles Per Hour, so those Hurricane Force winds right now its moving north at 12 Miles Per Hour. Now, if it kept that course, it would be hitting the coast of South Carolina. However, it looks like it will start to make that turn to the northeast. So, just skimming the coast of georgia, South Carolina, weakening to a category one hurricane as it does and then heading out to sea and it still looks like theres a possibility that matthew could drive down to the south as a tropical system perhaps head through the bahamas and even skim southern florida early next week. Ill talk more about the storms impact, also track some rain our way this weekend coming up in the full accuweather forecast. Jim. Thank you cecily. Lets talk about travel. Flights from south florida got up and running again this afternoon. Passengers from miami and Fort Lauderdale started arriving in philadelphia just about an hour ago. Orlando expects limited Service Beginning tomorrow. But airports from jacksonville, florida, to charlton, South Carolina are still closed tonight. Matthew devastated the impoverished caribbean nation of haiti. The government is reporting nearly 300 deaths but there are reports that there could be hundreds more. Tens of thousands of others are now homeless and crops have been destroyed. Our coverage of Hurricane Matthew continues on 6abc. Com and the 6abc news app with Live Streaming video from locations within the storm zone, photographs of flooding and wind damage and a Hurricane Tracker to monitor matthews progress and that is the hurricane story to the moment. Other news at this hour. If you fill up your car in new jersey, get ready to pay another 23 cents a gallon. The Legislature Passed the hike in the gas tax today and sent the legislation to governor christie. Live at the statehouse in trenton is new jersey correspondent Nora Muchanic. Nora, new jersey gas will still be less than pennsylvania but not by nearly as much as it is now. Reporter not so much, jim. New jersey used to have the second he lowest gas tax in the country behind alaska. Now well have about the seventh highest. Legislators who voted for this compromise legislation seemed to be holding their noses but say the increase is necessary to pay for desperately needed road and bridge repairs. Get ready. Before long drivers will be paying 23 cents more a gallon for gas in new jersey. Thats after state legislators passed a bipartisan package of bills to finance the Transportation Trust fund which pays to build and repair roads bridges and mass transit. We have an obligation. Our infrastructure is crumbling here in new jersey. The statistics are one of the worst in the names its 32 billion for new jersey when you talk about the federal match to put into our infrastructure which is not had a dime put into it for 20 years. We come up with a compromise. I dont think anybody is absolutely totally satisfied with but its the best we could with the governor. Reporter to offset the pain of that gas tax hike lawmakers agreed to the governors demand to lower the sales tax slightly as well as income taxes for he retirees and veterans. The estate tax will be eliminated altogether. It blows a 1. 5 billion hole in the budget. Reporter senator ray less knee lesniak opposes it. 23 cents for a people who are struggling to stay in the state is simply too high for a gallon. Theres nothing fair about it bought its the people who are making the least that are going to be suffering the most. Reporter aaa estimates the gas tax hike will cost the average driver in new jersey 170 a year. No surprise here people want improved roads but they dont want a jump in gas prices. I think its terrible. I dont want my gas price to go up. That would be awful. Reporter jim, new jersey hasnt hiked the gas tax in 28 years. The bill now goes to the governors desk for signature and we should be seeing those higher prices at the pump by november 1st. Live at the statehouse in trenton, im Nora Muchanic channel6 action news. Thank you nora. Minutes ago the Philadelphia Parking Authority started a sting operation against illegal ride hailing services. Yesterday a judge ordered uber x and lyft to stop operating in philadelphia. Customers will not be fined for ordering the service but drivers could face substantial fines and have their cars confiscated. The woman accused of setting a house fire that claimed the lives of two wilmington firefighters was in court this morning. At her preliminary hearing investigators say 28yearold beatriz fana ruiz started the fire. She told them she had been drinking and was on antianxiety medication tractortrailer family of jerry fickes and Christopher Leach were in court at the time. The School District of philadelphia announced its expanding Drinking Water testing to every school in the city. Chad pradelli is live at elementary. Reporter jim for the most part the results are favorable but not here at holme elementary where the district says 11 water fountains had unacceptable levels of lead. My heart is pounding. You send your kids to school. You dont think anything will happen. Reporter jasmine worries about her three children who attend holme elementary. The School District released water fountain test water levels that found 11 fountains had higher levels than the safety threshold. Two had over 53 parts per billion. We immediately shut off any outlets that are above the actionable levellism fran burns is chief operating officer of the philadelphia School District. She says 26 of 40 schools have been tested. Theyre considered high risk schools because of age and other factors. More than 85 percent of the water fountains tested this year have acceptable levels of lead. However, three schools of note ,. Overbrook high school 87 bethune elementary, 64. 3. Would any of those students have been at risk of lead poisoning. No. The best thing i can say there is to when you get the letter, we have some information to educate yourself. We dont believe this cause for alarm. Reporter a letter has been sent to parents at affected schools. It reads in part if youre concerned about your childs possible lead exposure risks the Philadelphia Department of Public Health recommends contacting your pediatrician or Neighborhood Health center for testing. I have three children who go to this school. Now im thinking about the effects on them. Reporter right. What can i do . Reporter and the School District tells me all of the water fountains that were found to have unacceptable levels of lead have been remediated or taken out of service. Now if you want to see the full set of test results you can go to our web side at 6abc. Com. Im live in northeast philadelphia, chad pradelli channel6 action news. Jim. Thank you chad. Atlantic city is offering early he retirement buyouts to more than 160 workers to try and get its finances back on track. Part of the fiscal Recovery Plan aimed at avoiding a takeover by the state. 70 Police Officers and 36 firefighters are among those eligible for the buyouts. Atlantic city is at least 500 million in debt. Last week city officials announced the sale of baeder field for 100 million. Coming up on action news tonight, upper darby native tina fey receives a big honor from Temple University and the eagles get ready to take on the Detroit Lions after their bye week layoff. Hurricane matthew continues barreling up the southeast coast causing wave heights 15 feet a dangerous storm surge. Ill talk more about the hurricane and also the timing of showers here over the weekend in the accuweather 7day forecast. And ill talk with Vice President joe biden at his Campaign Stop today in bristol bucks county when action news continues. When i was one year old, i was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer on my spinal chord. But i spent my whole life fighting back. So you can imagine what i thought when i saw donald trump say. I dont know what i said, ah, i dont remember that reporter he is talking about suffers from a chronic condition that impairs movement of his arms. I dont want a president who makes fun of me. I want a president who inspires me, and thats not donald trump. Priorities usa action is responsible for the content of this advertising. Vice President Joe Biden brought the campaign trail to Bucks County Community college today. Political analysts say that if Hillary Clinton wins bucks county, shell win the state and then the presidency. After the rally i talked oneonone with the Vice President. I asked about the upcoming debate sunday night and what clinton could do better. I remember at the Democratic National convention and we talked and i asked you what does Hillary Clinton have to do in her acceptance speech and you said talk from the heart. She does have trouble doing that. She does have trouble doing that but i know her heart. For example the closest she came in the debate with when she talks from the heart its well shes playing the woman card. When she was talking about trumps policies and said and all those people that he laid off and he quote i think she used the word stiff heed and he said well maybe they didnt do the job and she said i watched my dad leaning over a silk screen doing draperies, guys like that. I felt like that was a real connection. I think people sort of got like oh, god, she really she really gets it. And but you know what, its hard its hard for her. And, you know, guys like me get a pass. She doesnt. More from the interview at 11 oclock including bidens bet with barack obama over the eaglesbears game last month. You dont think theyre competitive . Donald trump was back in new york today to receive the endorsement of the National Border patrol council. Hours after that meeting video from 2005 was leaked showing trump speaking in lewd and vulgar terms about women using language that we cant repeat. He quickly issued a statement saying he apologizes if anybody was offended. Trump and clinton will meet again sunday night in saint louis for the second president ial debate. 44 new Police Officers took the pledge to protect and serve today in Mercer County. The 15th class of the Mercer CountyPolice Academy graduated in west wind sore. The recruits completed 21 weeks of extensive training and are now ready to serve the community. Upper darbys favorite daughter received a big honor today. Temple university presented comedian tina fey with its annual lew kline excellence in media today. She sid her success can be traced to three things her family television. Sent my pictures to dear old captain noah. Fantastic. I seethed with jealousy watching the al alberts showcase. Fay also recalled dressing as sally starr for halloween, this is the 16th year for temples awards. Eagles looking to go four and o Detroit Lions. Cant wait for this sunday eagleslions. This defense may be without one of their best players up front. Eagles coach Doug Pederson knocked on wood on wednesday hoping everyone would stay healthy. It didnt work. Defensive tackle benny logan misses practice today and is questionable for sunday against the lions with a calf injury. Even on a nice day the eagles practicing inside trying to simulate the noise at ford field. Pederson says he likes the energy and mindset of carson wentz and this team coming off the bye. He believes theyre ready to roll into detroit. I think they understand that its still a long season. Theyre excited obviously for where we are but by no means are they satisfied with just being three and o. The goal obviously is to win the next game and we just take it one game at a time but its been a good week. Well all eyes have been on wentz flying under the radar the eagles d which has not allowed a passing touchdown this late in the season in 82 years. Espns ron jaworski has more. Theyre very focused. A very focused total team. And you know we really havent spent a whole lot of time talking about the defense. You know, carson wentz great but it really has been the defense thats been the constant through three games and if the defense continues to play the way its playing, the eagles will be in every game. The flyers open the regular season a week from tonight and oh, no, not again, yet another injury. Defenseman Michael Del Zotto will miss four to five weeks with a lower body injury. Flyers without Brandon Manning and scott laughton. Shorthanded flyers maybe they can call an old timer out of retimer. Kimmo timonen playing street hock he key on the us s murtha. After missing two seasons joel embiid didnt know what to expect for the first to ht the floor for the first time. He thought he would ged booed. Not a shot. He says embiid will be their folk cull point go to guy on offense and defense. He scored 11 points in 25 minutes. And from the ovation last night look everybody wants to see embiid do well. Thats philadelphia. Isnt it . Its like they they extend a big hug to joel. I thought that when he they introduced me the ovation was pretty good and so it was exciting. Dar dario saric got a nice start. Sixers play lebron and the cavs in a preseason game tomorrow. Chase utley will take another swing at a world series ring as the dodgers open the playoffs in washington against jayson werth and the nationals. Dodgers up one right now. In the American League cleveland up fivenothing on boston in the American League divisional series. In the another alds torontos Edward Encarnacion does it again. Encarnacion the solo homer third of the inning. J. A. Happ and take a fivethree win in game two. High school huddle. High School Football action tonight on action news after action news at 11 00 plymouth whitemarsh at upper dublin is the game of the week. Well have our very own cecily tynan throwing the football a spiral a strike right on target again tonight. God willing. And cecily tynan will have there accuweather story when we continue in just a moment. Planned parenthood. I would support legislation in pennsylvania that would ban abortion and i would suggest we have penalties for doctors who perform them. Would you put people in jail for performing abortions . At some point doctors performing abortions i think would be subject to that sort of penalty. Dscc is responsible for the content of this advertising. Katie v she stays late. Rd. But she gets paid 21 less than her male coworkers. Pat toomey has voted time after time against equal pay for women, against pay that helps hard working families get ahead. Katie o c for my daughters and yours, ill fight for equal pay for women. Families need it; youve earned it. Katie v o im katie mcginty, and i approve this message because its your turn to get ahead. A lot of talking about Hurricane Matthew but we have a local forecast. Thats right. We have some rain on the way over the weekend. Not tonight though. Storm tracker6 live double scan slowing no rain out there this evening. However, we have been dealing with increasing high thin clouds. Started the day with the bright sunshine blue skies. Now the center city skyline showing that we are getting some thin cirrus clouds really in advance of matthew streaming up from the south and these clouds will continue to thicken as we head through the overnight hours. Temperaturewise though felt great today. Our high 78 degrees. Thats a full 8 degrees above average. Right now 71 in philadelphia, allentown a mild 74, trenton 69 with the winds off the ocean it is cooler along the beaches, cape may currently 66. So satellite6 along with action radar showing the clouds streaming up from the south theres moisture down there and also a cold front moving in from the west. These two systems combine tomorrow afternoon and evening and that will bring us some rain. Tonight though should be a dry night with the clouds increasing, kind of an atmospheric blank